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Bat Prints

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight (other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, can glide for only limited distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek words cheir () hand and pteron () wing, as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.

A measure of the success of bats is their estimated total of about 1,100 species worldwide, accounting for about 20 percent of all mammal species. About 70 percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, with a few species being carnivorous. Bats are present throughout most of the world. Bats perform a vital ecological role by pollinating flowers, and also serve an important role in seed dispersal. Many tropical plants are entirely dependent on bats.

Since bats are terrestrial and light-boned, there are few fossilized remains. An Early Eocene bat, Onychonycteris finneyi, was found in the 52-million-year-old Green River Formation in Wyoming (US) in 2003. The new genus was placed in a new family when it was published in Nature, February 2008. It was clearly a flier, but the well-articulated skeleton showed that the cochlea of the inner ear lacked the developments which, in modern bats, provide echolocation capabilities; this indicates that flight in bats was developed before echolocation. The team realized Onychonycteris finneyi was different when they noticed that the species lacked the ear and throat features present not only in all living, echolocating bats today, but also in other ancient species known only from fossils.

The bats of 52.5 million years ago flew differently than the bats of today, and had a vastly different appearance. Onychonycteris had claws on all five of its fingers, whereas modern bats have - at most - claws for only two digits on each hand. It also had longer hind legs, and shorter forearms, similar to those of climbing mammals that hang under branches (such as sloths or gibbons). This palm-sized animal had broad, short wings, which suggests that it could not fly as fast or as far as later bat species. Instead of flapping its wings continuously while flying, Onychonycteris would likely have alternated flapping and gliding while airborne. These physical characteristics also suggest that this species did not fly as much as modern bats do, perhaps just flying from tree to tree and spending most of its waking day just climbing or hanging.

Another early Eocene fossil Icaronycteris index, was unearthed in 1960.